The U.S. State Department yesterday followed the time-honored tradition of releasing news the government wants to bury over a holiday, and the New York Times played along. The U.S. admitted — nearly 2 months after Palestinian American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead — that the Israeli army was “likely responsible,” but then added that American officials “found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances during an I.D.F.-led military operation.”
The U.S. whitewash is brazen. It’s no surprise the State Department hoped Americans were too distracted by Fourth of July fireworks to pay attention.
There was nothing new in the State Department “report.” Earlier investigations, including a belated one by the New York Times itself, had already refuted Israel’s effort to blame “Palestinian gunmen” for the killing. So Israel, and its U.S. accomplices in deceit, then tried to focus on the actual bullet that killed the respected journalist. The American inquiry found that the bullet was too “badly damaged” to even come to a “clear conclusion” about where it originated.
The New York Times reporters acted as stenographers for the U.S./Israeli coverup until the 20th paragraph, when they allowed Abu Akleh’s family to interrupt briefly by saying, “The focus on the bullet has always been misplaced and was an attempt by the Israeli side to spin the narrative in its favor, as if this were some kind of police whodunit that could be solved by a C.S.I.-type forensic test.”
But the most astonishing element in the U.S. whitewash was its confident view that she was not killed intentionally. Let’s look at the facts. The Israeli troops who fired were several hundred yards away. One bullet hit Shireen Abu Akleh in the head. A second one hit another journalist who was near her, Ali al-Samoudi, in the back. At least two other bullets hit the tree she was standing near. Who can believe that a trained Israeli marksman, firing wildly, would accidentally hit 2 people from such a distance?
The Times made no effort to interview the eyewitnesses who were with Abu Akleh when she died. The Washington Post account did quote the respected Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem as saying that “the odds that those responsible for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh will be held to account are all but nonexistent” — but the Times has long had trouble finding B’Tselem’s telephone number.
The only unanswered questions about the killing of Abu Akleh are:
Did the Israeli soldier who shot her act alone? Or was he following orders?
And how high up the chain of command does the coverup go?
Unless U.S. officials actually grilled Israeli soldiers, there is no way they can say the killing wasn’t “intentional.”
Once again, you have to turn to the respected Israeli daily Haaretz for an accurate story. Security affairs reporter Amos Harel isn’t afraid to tell the truth, that “on the Israeli side, it is very unlikely that a criminal investigation by the Military Police will be opened.”
And Harel summarizes:
Prime Minister Yair Lapid and IDF [Israel Defense Forces] Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi live among their own people. The last thing they need now is a criminal investigation against a soldier. . .
The problem with the US’s and the NYT “investigations” and their obsession one only one bullet, is that there were more than half a dozen shots fired at Shireen and her crew. All of them bullets. All of them controlled single shots in an incredibly tight cluster.
That means that there would be bullets from almost certainly the exact same rifle lodged in those trees, the wall behind which her crew were hiding, and the cameraman himself who was also shot and wounded. Any serious investigation, especially a criminal one, would have gathered those bullets too to see if they matched the bullet (or rifle) that killed Shireen or the bullet that wounded her camera man. All of which could be used to corroborate the facts, refute any lies, inaccurate testimony, and propaganda.
Not to mention the official US statement makes a bold, sweeping, and inconsistent propaganda statement about the so-called intent of the Israelis who shot Shireen, without a shred of evidence or investigation into the Israeli forces that likely shot her. This is even more brazen when they fail to take into consideration or even acknowledge that the IDF has been killing innocent men, women, and children in Jenin on a weekly basis! The latest being a 17-year-old boy, bringing the total Palestinians killed by Israeli forces (including Shireen Abu-Akleh) in the region to 78 people this year alone. SIXTEEN of them children.
Any normal media outlet would point this out. Any normal media institution not dedicated to covering up Israeli Apartheid and war crimes would mention that Shireen’s death was not an isolated incident but routine and virtually standard operating procedure of IDF forces in the West Bank.
The US is once again lying for Israel. We have lost all credibility when it comes to Israel, because we keep cleaning up their stinky poop, and going against all human rights agencies, even within Israel, trying to sanitize the zionist lies, and becoming complicit in yet another zionist crime.
MSNBC just covered this issue, with a reporter updating the situation from Jerusalem, and it was a fair enough account of this outrage.
From an Al Jazeera article:
B’tselemB’tselem, an Israeli human rights group, called the investigation a “US-backed Israeli whitewash”.
“All investigations published so far conclude that Israel is responsible for the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh,” the group said in a tweet on Monday.
Mai El-Sadany, human rights lawyerMai El-Sadany, a human rights lawyer based in Washington, DC, denounced the findings, calling them “shameful”.
“Words matter,” El-Sadany said in a tweet. “Shameful US State Department statement today on the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh which facilitates erasure & impunity with vagueness & distractions – in the face of independent reporting which has already made clear findings, including presence of no militants near Abu Akleh.”
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard said the killing of Abu Akleh must be investigated as an act of “excessive use of force”.
Callamard also said that while intention matters, “its possible absence does not absolve Israel of its responsibilities”.
“And #Israel must be held accountable. Justice must be delivered,” she tweeted. “Journalists must be protected when doing their work. Not a target.”.
Shame on the United States of America.
Let’s get real! The Zionists have a century of or experience in deceit, lying, and hasbara.
The IDF has thoroughly investigated this matter. It knows the name of the person who pulled the trigger. It’s determined whether the killer knew the name of who he/she was killing or whether it was just a deliberate hit against a generic press target. All of this is known.
Anyone who believes that the Israel Defense Force didn’t conduct a thorough investigation is a fool. This is what well-managed armies do, and what army is better managed than the IDF?
It ‘s also likely that our own CIA has this information. And only God knows what the Israelis have whispered to Blinken & Co.who certainly knows more than what he’s saying publicly.
Haaretz’s editorial today concludes, “Even if such probes always have a tendency to be “the IDF investigating itself,” this would nevertheless be infinitely preferable to Israel’s denials of one simple fact – everyone who has investigated this incident has pointed a finger at soldiers from the Duvdevan unit, even if this is “merely” very likely.“
The New York times is clearly walking a fine line here. Journalist simply do not want to have a situation like Charles Enderlin who endured many years of lawsuits which could have been avoided if all parties had released the evidence available. As it stands the New York times is afraid of being accused of another “aldura hoax” so they really can only report from reliable sources about what happened that day